Remember the adorable German Shepard companion seen in virtually all of the demos and videos released for Fallout 4? Good news: no matter what transpires out there in the wasteland, he cannot die.

In fact, none of the companions that may accompany you on your quest across post-apocalyptic Boston can die. Speaking with IGN, Bethesda's Todd Howard discussed the now-immortal companions, a decision the development team made to better serve the player.

"[The dog] does not die, because we realize that's automatic re-load," Howard said. "We like to make the game where the only scenario where you re-load is your own death. So, like a lot of open world games, they'll have it where 'you failed this mission, go ahead and press "A" to redo it.' We don't ever want to do that. So, we've got to handle all failstates and some of those we have to do like, 'Okay, the dog can't die, because you're just going to re-load.'"

Additionally, Howard explained that having companions along for the ride in Fallout 4 was entirely up to the player, because the team wanted to retain the same sense of choice featured in previous Bethesda open-world RPGs.

"Like everything else, it's entirely optional. So, you can have a companion with you and it can be the dog, it could be other characters we haven't shown yet," he said. "Or, you could have no companion."

He wasn't ready to comment on whether or not companions could level up alongside the player, but did mention that the development team at Bethesda Game Studios was "being a bit more specific about their role." It's likely we'll learn more about the role companions play in the very near future.

Fallout 4 will release on November 10 for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.